


Christmas in the Keys

by Argentee



Series: The Symbol of Your Soul [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Christmas, F/M, Florida, Iron Man 3, Multi, Peggy Carter Lives, Steggy Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-30 17:15:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17228069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argentee/pseuds/Argentee
Summary: Cold Weather holds a lot of bad memories, so Steve and Peggy head south for Christmas. As far south as you can go and still be in the US in fact! This is a sequel to 'Truth is On My Skin' but you don't have to have read that first.A gift for leatvshows for the 2018 Steggy Secret SantaNot beta read, all errors are mine.I hope you enjoy!





	1. Farewell, New York

It was the second week of December, and snow fell in fat, wet flakes across New York City. Peggy frowned, leaning into the wind a bit and clutching her bags tighter to her. Entering the Avengers Tower, the warmth enveloped her and she exhaled with relief. Nodding to the security guard, she crossed over to the private elevator to the Avenger's floor. "Good evening, JARVIS. Where is Steve this evening?"

"Right where you left him, ma'am, I'm sorry to say." The cultured tones of the AI brought a twinge of nostalgia as always. 

Peggy shed her coat as the elevator smoothly ascended. "He hasn't been sleeping well either. Not since the cold weather started." Draping the coat over her arm, she picked up her bags. "Have the Gulfstream prepped, if you please? I think a change of venue is required."

Jarvis opened the elevator doors at their floor, then the door to their apartments off of the private lobby. She hung her coat on the coat rack by the door, set the bags of gifts on the couch, then headed into the study. 

Steve was indeed still in front of the canvas he had been working on when she left. There were three new smears of color, but nothing she would call progress, and there hadn't been all week. "Hello, Darling. I'm just hating this cold." Was that a flinch? No one else would notice, but she knew Steve Rogers, knew the twitch at a corner of his eye when he wanted to wince, but wouldn't allow himself. "I know Bucky feels the same, when I breathe in the wrong way it cuts into my lungs the way cryo did. That's why he's in Stark's place down in the Florida keys." And Steve had his own nightmares about the cold, about putting the plane in the ocean. He wouldn't talk about it, but when he didn't sleep, she didn't sleep.

Steve looked up with a faint frown, "Florida? I thought Stark was in Mailbu?"

"Which is why Bucky is in Florida. Tony may be a dear friend, but he is a bit much, and Christmas puts him over the top."

Steve gave her a sly, sideways grin. "I think Stark lives over the top. He built his penthouse there." 

Peggy laughed, as much as she loved her godson, Steve did have a point. She leaned against Steve, wrapping her arms around him and just waited. 

 

Steve sighed into her hair, folding her into his arms. "It's just..." Peggy waited, hoping Steve would take the bait, or maybe even talk about what was bothering him. "Thor hasn't returned from Asgard. Jane and Darcy are in London. Tony and Pepper are in Malibu visiting his mother. Natasha, Clint, and Coulson have vanished off god knows where... and Bucky's in Florida. The tower feels empty... especially for Christmas."

Peggy pretended to ponder the issue, "Well, we don't have to stay here. I'm sure Stark would be glad to put us up in Malibu. Or we could claim one of the guest houses at his place in the keys. We could even fly to London, though that might mean dealing with my family, and I can't guarantee I wouldn't punch one of them." 

Steve laughed, "Well, I wouldn't want to start a brawl on Christmas..." He paused, "Could we go down to the Keys? I... I'm not enjoying the cold that much myself, and if Bucky's down there already..."

Peggy smiled at him. "Of course, darling. Bucky's family. We can take one of the smaller jets and fly down as soon as we pack."

Steve gave her another impish grin, "Well, we have go-bags packed..." 

Peggy poked him. "With winter clothes. This is Florida we are talking about. And we'll take the gifts in case any of the others turn up."

Steve started putting away his art supplies, energized now that he had a direction. "And if one of us does the flying, we don't even have to wait for a pilot."

Peggy gave a delicate sniff. "I'll do the flying, darling. Your landings still need some work."


	2. Welcome to Florida

The drive from New York to Key West would have been a nightmare, but in the small jet it was a mere four hour flight. Steve had taken a nap through most of it, but had woken and joined her in the cockpit just in time to hear 'RADAR contact lost'. At his concerned look, Peggy was quick to assure him, "Completely normal, darling. We're out of Miami's range, but not quite in Key West's."

Steve frowned, "Nothing but water and boats beneath us..."

Peggy nods, "We're taking the more direct route, rather than following the Keys... following the islands leads through Navy airspace if one isn't careful, and they get miffed about that sort of thing. But it's perfectly safe, even if we did go down, the water is shallow, we have a life raft and emergency radio, and half a dozen charter fishers are likely to see where we go down."

Steve gave her a look, "Saying it's perfectly safe and then saying there is a life raft aboard is not exactly reassuring, love." 

Peggy gave a little snort, "Darling, if you don't want to think of all that lovely warm ocean below us, think of us on Stark's private beach and me in a bikini."

That perked Steve up. "I didn't see you pack a bikini."

The corner of Peggy's mouth quirked up. "It's a very small bikini."

Steve's full attention was on Peggy, "How small, exactly?" 

Peggy smiled openly, "Very small. But you'll have to wait until we get there."

The automated voice came from the flight management system, 'RADAR contact acquired'.

Peggy tried very hard not to say 'I told you so'. "There, darling. All normal... we'll see the islands on the horizon soon, so I'm going to reach out to air traffic control, and see if they'll let us do a once around the island so you can get a look at the city... then we'll land, and hopefully Bucky will be waiting with a taxi to get us to the pier... a quick ride over to Stark Island, and then we can relax on the beach."

Steve made a face, "Did Tony rename the Island?" 

"No, Howard did... now hush, darling, while I deal with the details."

It truly didn't take that much longer, and Steve seemed to be appreciating the turquoise waters a lot more now than land was in sight. They were able to get permission to do an island tour, and Peggy found herself noting the changes since her last visit, locking them into her mental map. The airport wasn't busy, but it wasn't big either, so they had to wait their turn to land and clear the landing field as quickly as possible. A local company would take care of refueling and charge it to Stark's account. 

Bucky was there waiting, helping unload the suitcases and the large box with the presents. His shorts and t-shirt was a lot more appropriate to the Florida heat than their shirts and slack. Peggy watched as the boys gave each other a quick hug and thump on the back, then shuffled the bags into a waiting car. "Borrowed the car from the dock manager... less trouble than a taxi."

Steve frowned a little, "If you're worried about being recognized, shouldn't you cover the arm?"

Bucky scoffed, "In this heat? It's 82 out, punk. A tourist might get curious but for the locals, it won't even make their top ten weirdest things they've seen. Even better, they don't care."

Steve looked skeptical, "How weird can it be?" The car left the airport moving through what seemed to be a mix of small town tropical living and tourist traps."

Bucky got a wicked grin, "Fantasy Fest... ten day party in October... a lot of the costumes amount to body paint, and a tiny piece of cloth."

Peggy added dryly, "No, the only weird thing about that really was that the police didn't arrest that guy whose costume was a clear plastic cup... The cops argued that since he was wearing something, he wasn't technically naked." She ran through her memories of Key West, "No, weird is that frenchman with the trained cat act."

Steve scoffed, "Every circus has one of those."

Peggy arched a brow. "With housecats? My mother couldn't get hers to stay off the couch. His cats walk a tight rope and jump through hoops more or less on command."

Steve was smiling at that, "More or less?"

Peggy smirked, "Well, they **are** cats." At the docks they loaded the luggage onto the small yacht while Bucky returned the car to the dock manager. When he returned, Peggy helped Bucky cast off, then retired to the cabin for a lie down while the boys chatted. Changing into something lighter was also definitely called for, and she had the bikini in her purse.

Steve's expression when she came on deck in the tiny blue bikini was worth the flight down to Florida. Tying up on the dock on Stark's island took less time than usual with Steve's help, then he grabbed her, tossing her lightly in the air and over his shoulder, making her laugh.

Buck called out behind them, "Get a room!"

Peggy shouted back, "I think that's the idea!"


	3. Christmas is coming...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So surprise! This story is set during the Iron Man 3 timeline...

Christmas season on the island was much more laid back than in New York, more like the three remembered from their own childhoods. There were no lights on the tree, candles being dangerous and electricity being limited on the island. The ornaments were either old ones forgotten in storage, or ones they made. Steve delighted in cutting out intricate paper snowflakes or painting small ornaments to hang on the tree. Bucky walked the beach, bringing back shells that were strung up through holes in them or bits of interesting driftwood and sea glass. There was no cell phone service or TV, only a radio so they played cards, read paper books, and played board games or completed jigsaw puzzles.

They didn't want to run the generator to keep a refrigerator going. Generators were loud, and all three of them had serum-enhanced senses. So food was prepared from cans, supplemented with fresh caught fish or groceries brought in from town and kept on ice for a day or three. Thanks to the fishing industry it was possible to get proper block ice, which lasted far longer than a bag of cubes. 

Peggy and Steve did take some time to go around Key West and play tourist even if the bar scene was not to their taste. There was Hemingway House, a butterfly conservatory, wildlife tours, and small art galleries. Steve filled up first one sketchbook, then a second. They even caught a performance of Dominque and his trained cats. 

No one radioed them to inform them that Happy Hogun had been injured in a bombing. They were unaware when Tony Stark called out the Mandarin on live television. The first clue that something was wrong was the sound of a fast moving boat approaching the island. All three laid down their cards, looking at each other. Normal people wouldn't have heard the hum of the engines from this far away, but none of them had been normal in a very long time. As the engine continued to approach the island directly, Bucky ran for the front door, Peggy for the back, and Steve ran to grab his shield.

The small bunglow shook, and off to the side Peggy saw the main house destroyed in an orange ball of flames. A second explosion came from the area of the docks, no doubt the yacht being dealt with. Running through a scrubby woods filled with live oak and palmettos in sandals and a sarong would not have been Peggy's first choice, or even her fiftieth, but being near the beach meant being in sight of whomever was attacking, and she doubted even Erskine's serum could heal her from a direct hit from a rocket.

She mentally counted off distance, landmarks, and when she reached a small concrete slab with a rusted iron ring in the middle, she stopped. Most people would need a block and tackle to move the slab, Peggy grabbed the ring, braced herself, and pulled.

Steve ran up behind her as she was loading the guns packed carefully away in the sealed weather tight boxes beneath the slab. "One boat staying out to sea, two more are landing men on the island."

Peggy met Steve's gaze, "They're idiots. There's a Coast Guard and a Naval base not far from here, and between the tourists and the fishing boats there is no way that explosion wasn't noted. They should have hit and run."

Steve gave her a grin she remembered from the war. "Then let's make them pay for their stupidity."

The fight that followed wove in and out of the cover of the woods, and was fast and brutal. They had been attacked just days before Christmas, and what had been Stark's vacation home was sending a black pillar of smoke into the sky. None of them were in the mood to take prisoners, and soon the Coast Guard, or worse a civilian good samaritan might arrive, and find themselves in the middle of the firefight. Ending it quickly was the best, and only choice.

The third enemy boat, which had stayed out at sea pulled away just as the first Coast Guard ship approached. Peggy looked down at herself, scratches and grazes already healing, but filthy and barely dressed in a torn sarong and grimaced. "You greet the Coast Guard, boys... I'm going to pull on a little more clothing and join you. Remember Steve, I'm Margherita Carbonell... We need to stick with that story."

She ducked into their bungelow as the pair walked towards what was left of the dock, Steve with the shield conspicuously draped over one arm. In their bedroom, she grabbed a towel, wet it down, then gave herself a quick wipe to clear away the worst of the dirt and blood. Leaving what was left of the sarong on the floor, she quickly donned a shirt with sleeves long enough to cover her soulmark and a pair of shorts, then went out to join the boys.

Firefighters worked to extinguish what was left of the yacht and of Stark's home while an officer tried to question Steve and James. 'Tried' being the operative word. Steve was giving his best Disapproving Captain America frown, while Bucky gave his aw-shucks-I'm-just-a-kid-from-Brooklyn act. When Peggy arrived, Steve changed his expression to stoic-yet-concerned, "Margherita, you had better sit down... there is bad news about your cousin."

Peggy let her eyelashes flutter, "Maria? And Tony? Are they alright?"

The officer swallowed hard, "I'm sorry, ma'am... but we heard that the mansion in Mailbu was attacked the same time you were here. There's no news yet as to survivors..."

Bucky patted her arm consolingly, "There, there, it will be alright, Meg. Why don't you pack a bag, we'll get a ride back to Key West. We'll need to get the dock repaired, and a new boat before we can stay here."

Peggy did not break her act, though she was tempted to give Bucky a swift pinch. "You will need to pack too... both of you... If they are after our family... you can't leave me..."

Steve stiffened his jaw, "You're right, ma'am. Until we have more answers, we have to assume you're at risk. If you will excuse us, sir?"

The two boys flanked her as they walked back to the guest bungelow, Steve's jaw clenched the whole way. As soon as the door closed behind them, Steve chuckled. Bucky was far less restrained, almost doubling over with laughter, "Oh Steeeeve... you can't leeeave meee..."

Peggy sighed, "Oh stuff it, Barnes. You started it, there-there'ing me like that. The important thing is they bought it. I'm supposed to be Tony's shy reclusive cousin, not Peggy Carter." She looked between the pair of them, "I swear, put you two together, and it's like you're five years old again."

"Six," protested Bucky.

"Seven at least," countered Steve. "C'mon. We pack, head back to Key West, then try to call Pepper, or at least Jarvis."

It didn't take long for them to pack, even loading up the Christmas gifts again. Peggy gave the lovingly decorated tree a last glance before locking the door behind her. Where would they be celebrating Christmas?


	4. To the Rescue...

The trip back to Key West did not take long, but Steve managed to learn that the third boat had been tracked heading east, and that the Coast Guard was in pursuit. Once back in Key West, they hired a taxi to the airport, loading their belongings on the Gulfstream.

Peggy had spent the time trying to reach people by phone, with much less success than she would have liked. Once aboard the Gulfstream, she looked between the two, "I've been unable to reach Tony, but Pepper assures me that his soulmark is unchanged. Jarvis says that one of the suits got him out of the building, but... the suit was damaged, and he's not been able to re-establish contact. Maria was no where near Tony's home when the explosion occurred, so she is fine. Pepper's putting a heavy guard on her. I told Jarvis about the attack on us, and he's now tracking the third boat as well."

Steve nodded. "We'll stay on the plane for now... it's late and we all need to clean up." 

Bucky leapt to his feet calling out, "Dibs on the shower!" already on the way there.

Peggy laughed at Steve's scowling, "Oh, let him." 

Steve grumbled, "He used to have manners enough to let a lady clean up first."

Peggy smiled, "He doesn't think of me as a lady, Steve... more of an older sister. We rescued each other from Hydra, gave his former handlers a merry chase around Robin Hood's barn. We've watched each other's backs and sewn up each other's wounds so many times since then that manners and formality have flown merrily out the window."

Steve entwined his fingers with Peggy's. "Someday you'll have to tell me all the stories I missed. I'm glad the two of you are more relaxed with each other, during the war the two of you were rather... stiff with each other."

Peggy chuckled, "I was stiff with everyone except you. But yes, we're more relaxed with each other... we're good friends." She tapped a nail thoughtfully against her lips, "There is a king sized bed in back, and the couch folds down into a bed. The tank is full, and there's a small kitchen that's stocked, or we can have take out from one of the restaurants -"

Whatever she was going to say next was cut off by Bucky shouting from the bathroom to be heard over the shower, "I want the Barbecue Shrimp and Key Lime Pie from Blue Heaven!"

Peggy gave Steve a rueful look. "Unfortunately, the walls in the plane are very thin. Especially with serum enhanced hearing." She shot a look in the direction of the bathroom. "And we are not ordering from Blue Heaven. Key Lime pie should -not- have meringue." After some discussion, Peggy ended up ordering from a Cuban restaurant. She held firmly that there was no sense in travelling and eating what you would eat at home, and the boys would eat nearly anything put in front of them. 

By the time food had arrived, the three had showered and changed, and the Coast Guard had found the boat abandoned, and Jarvis was tracking the two ships that had possibly picked up those on board. By the time they finished eating, Jarvis was back in touch with Tony, Pepper was missing, and the most likely destination for the ships was Miami.

Peggy handled the flight while the boys napped, trying not to grin at the sight of them conked out on the seats behind her. This reminded her of the War, the two Brooklyn boys together again, eating hard, sleeping hard, fighting hard. Once they landed in Miami, she used an alternate set of ID and credit cards to rent a car, then had James drive them down to the dock while she stretched out in the back and napped.

A chime from her Stark phone woke her, Jarvis alerting them that the first of the suspicious ships was coming into port. Peggy silenced her phone, and the three exchanged looks, then left the car, splitting up. James went high, Peggy and Steve low, splitting up and watching silently. The ship tied up, and they watched as it unloaded. Her phone vibrated, and she checked the message from Jarvis. Signalling to Steve, she moved silently down the pier to where the second ship would be docking. Finding a spot in the shadows, she waited. This one looked more promising, one of the life boats was slightly askew, and they weren't unloading cargo. There was shadowy movement on deck, and she watched the shapes and movement... Armed. Guarding.

Steve moved into another patch of shadow, and Peggy gestured to the car. Steve scowled, but went back to the vehicle. Waiting was the hard part, she flexed her muscles in place without moving, keeping her eyes focused just past the men on deck. People could sometimes feel a gaze, so she was careful not to let it rest on any one person. An hour passed. A second. Then a bloody Chinook helicopter came and landed on deck. The armed men began to load aboard, and she scrambled through the shadows back to the car. 

She hesitated to open the door, but Steve gestured upward. He had dismantled the dome light so it wouldn't light up when the doors were opened. She slid in one door. A few seconds later, James slide in the other side. When the Chinook had taken off and moved, Steve peeled off and Peggy hit Jarvis on the speed dial. "Jarvis, there is a Chinook taking off. I need you to track it."  
Jarvis's voice was tense, "Yes, ma'am. Ma'am, I've lost contact with Sir and with Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes." The screen on her phone changed, a map coming up, a bright dot tracking the path of the Chinook.

Peggy said reassuringly, "We will find them, Jarvis. We'll bring them home." The sun came up as they followed the signal to a mansion outside of Miami. 

Steve murmurs, "This place will be a pain to storm, but if our people are in there..."

Peggy finished the sentence, "Then that's where we're going. Back door."

James replied, "Top down."

Steve hefted his shield. "Bottom up."

The three split up, approaching the house from different directions, sticking to cover. Peggy came up silently behind a guard, and clubbed him hard on the head, sending him down. Hitting the right spot was harder than it seemed, and there was always the chance of a brain-bleed, but she couldn't bring herself to worry about the well being of terrorists that had captured Tony. And Pepper. And Rhodes.

Peggy snuck up to the door she had selected, and started to pick the lock. Jarvis said the man behind this, the Mandarin, claimed to be head of the Ten Rings. After what she and James had done last time, she would have thought they would know to leave Tony Stark alone. Peggy wanted her godson back. She wanted to burn them to the ground and sew the earth with salt. She wanted...

Three sets of fast moving footsteps approached the door from the other side. A fourth set shuffled and slid as if being forced along. There was nowhere near by to hide, and Peggy tucked her gun close to her side. She wanted things to go according to plan for a change. Maybe next Christmas.

The door opened to a pair of armed guards in dark suits with automatic rifles and a man in a lighter colored suit forcing a dishevelled, handcuffed Pepper Potts along.  
Peggy gave them a disarming smile taking a step closer. "Excuse me, might I use your phone?" The moment of confusion was enough for her to close the distance, getting too close for them to bring their rifles to bear. 

Her handgun worked just fine. The two guards went down in a shot each... except they then started to glow and one of them stood back up. The man in the light suit gloated, "I don't know who you think you are, but you're no match for an Extremis enhanced soldier." Given the fact that his eyes were glowing a bit as well, that made three enhanced to her one.

Make that two enhanced, the one on the ground wasn't getting up, though the glow was getting brighter. The guard that was on his feet grappled with her, and was like fighting a living oven, her gun hand pinned between them. Peggy could feel her own skin burning and trying to heal as the guard started to laugh.

Peggy threw her weight backwards as she fired upward, the bullet entering the man's jaw and then going up through his brain stopping the laughter. The glow from the man on the ground grew brighter. Potts threw herself desperately back inside the house, and Peggy dove after her, trusting that Pepper knew what was going on. The door slammed closed behind the two women.  
The door flew off the hinges as something just outside exploded, followed instantly by a second explosion..

Peggy stood and pushed against her side, feeling a rib move more than it should a a white flash of pain cross her vision. Pepper lay beneath a section of fallen wall, and Peggy frantically moved steel and stone, noting that Pepper's skin was now glowing. Pepper didn't stir, but the spine and neck were intact, and Peggy was sure Pepper was breathing if barely.

"Well, she had outlived her usefulness anyway." Peggy spun at the sound behind her. The two men she had taken out were gone, nothing more than charred silhouettes. The third man advanced on her, but he no longer looked human. His skin didn't merely glow, it was blackened and charred, but lit from beneath like a cooling lava field. "On the other hand, you will be a more useful specimen. With what I can glean from your biology, I may be able to stabilize Extremis."

Peggy backed away from Pepper, circling towards the man's left, towards a fire extinguisher on the wall. She had to get him away from Pepper before he realized the woman wasn't dead and moved to correct the mistake. "You know, madmen used to at least introduce themself before threatening to perform illegal experiments on me."

"I ... am... not... mad.... I am a Visionary" The flames flared along with his temper, and a section of his skin seemed to slip. Then the fires calmed as he did. "Aldrich Killian. Advanced Idea Mechanics. And I am PERFECTING the super soldier serum. Soldiers that do not merely heal but are living weapons!"

Peggy kept circling slowly, and Aldrich turned to follow her. "You know, Erskine never called it the super soldier serum... just the serum. He didn't try to add anything, he said it just amplified what was there. And he never killed innocent people to advance his goals."

Aldrich scoffed, "Is anyone ever innocent? I am remaking the world. And I think it's time to show you who the superior soldier is." He reached a flaming hand towards her, then staggered, half his body sliding to the side as Pepper swung a length of steel with chunks of concrete still embedded in it through him. He turned, his body flowing rather than bending along joints, no longer human, a huge gap in his torso from Pepper's blow. "Oh, Pe-"

The moment he turned, Peggy had grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and tossed it into the gap in Killian's body. The sudden heat made the extinguisher explode, foam spraying over Killian, extinguishing his flames, his body cracking. Pepper swung again, with more than human strength, and Killian shattered in fragments in all directions.

Pepper looked at Peggy with wide, shell-shocked eyes. "What did I... I had to...."

"It's alright, Pepper... just breathe slowly and focus. We did it. Now we just have to find -"

A leg of the Iron man armor flew between the two women and crashed into the wall near the floor, angling downward. The two women exchanged a look. "Tony." They said in unison.

The leg backed up, and battered again at the same spot. The third time, the two women grabbed it in unison as it backed up, and shoved it further down the hall, to the top of a stairwell. This time, when the leg slammed forward, it went down the staircase, smashing open the door at the bottom.

Pepper said hesitantly, "Should... Should we go down?"

There was the sound of repulsors firing below, then the richocheting of Steve's shield bouncing off of and smashing through things. Peggy said thoughtfully, "No, sounds like the boys are having fun." She took Pepper's hands in hers, rubbing them soothingly, then worked on picking the locks on the mangled remains of the cuffs on Pepper's wrists.

Pepper said quietly, "I killed him... He tortured me, experimented on me... He was a madman, he talked like I should be grateful..." The noises from below had stopped, and Steve and Tony had come up the stairs, but Pepper hadn't noticed. "Then he was standing there, talking about doing the same to you, and... I killed him." Pepper sounded like her heart was breaking, Tony's mask was flipped up, and he looked like his heart was breaking. "At least it's over...."

Bucky and Rhodes came running in just in time to hear the last part. Bucky's expression was grim, "It isn't over."

Rhodes expression was a match for Bucky's. "They have the Iron Patriot armor. They're going after the President."

Tony said nothing, just looked at Pepper, his expression for once hiding nothing of the emotions tearing him up inside. 

Pepper gave him a tired smile. "Go... the world needs you to be Iron Man. I need you to be Iron Man."

Rhodey slipped an arm around Pepper who leaned gratefully against him. "I've got her. Go save the president, Tony." Then as Tony flipped down his visor and turned to leave, Rhodey added, "And get my armor back!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the Post Credit scene left people...


	5. Post Credit Scene: Christmas Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For sitting until the end of the credits, you're rewarded with seeing some of the Avengers sitting together for Christmas.

Christmas day found them back on Stark's private island. A temporary floating dock had been put up, and a freshly purchased and renamed yacht floated next to it. With the main house in ruins, those there had crammed into the guest bungelows, and currently everyone was crowded around the Christmas Tree surrounded by piles of half opened presents, plates of french toast and glasses of eggnog.  
Tony and Rhodey leaned against one wall, and each other, with Pepper laying across both their laps. A mild argument was going on, with Rhodey protesting, "No, Tony, Sea++ is a terrible name for a yacht."

Tony protested, "No, it's an awesome name for a yacht. It's my idea, and my ideas are awesome. Tell him, Pepper."

"It's a terrible name. Suits you perfectly." Pepper was smiling up at both of them. 

Tony protested, "Was that an insult? I think of just been insulted."

Peggy was cuddled up with Steve on the couch, wearing matching Santa hats. Florida was far too hot for ugly Christmas sweaters, but she was wearing a t-shirt printed to look like the stitching of a sweater in the design of Steve's shield. It was probably intended for Steve, because it was far too large for her. Steve was wearing a green t-shirt with a Christmas tree printed in ornate artistic scroll work.

Clint was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table with Bucky, digging into a pile of french toast finishing a story. "... which is when the Alien City exploded. We had barely gotten clear, and Trip will be a while recovering. We got back to base in time to hear about SHIELD starting the clean up down here. And since we are on mandatory leave after that whole mess, we headed down here."

Natasha picked up a stray wrapped box to set her own plate down. "To Agent from Stark." She handed it to Coulson, who was sitting down with his own plate. Coulson was wearing one of his Christmas gifts from Clint, a Tshirt printed to look like his suits, along with Peggy's gift, a Hermes tie. He carefully unwrapped the gift, not tearing the paper, and gave a small smile. Inside was an old red white and blue tin box, and inside it was an almost complete set of original Captain America trading cards. He looked over at Stark, "It's missing five cards."

Clint frowned, "How can you tell that? You haven't even taken them out."

Tony said matter of factly, "Because when I got him started on his first set, I was missing five cards." 

Peggy and Buck shared a nostalgic glance, while everyone else looked confused. Though it was Clint who blurted out, "Wait, what?!?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! Please post comments, they feed my soul!
> 
> I still don't have a beta-reader, so all mistakes are mine.
> 
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> And yes, this is foreshadowing for the next fic where I fill in backstory!


End file.
